Tunneling entity in different injection regimes of InGaN light emitting diodes

The forward I-V characteristics of InGaN-based light emitting diodes heteroepitaxially grown have previously been shown to be dominated by tunneling over a wide range of bias, as indicated by unrealistic values for the ideality factor. Comparison of the electrical characteristics in different bias regimes for InGaN light emitting diodes (LEDs) to expressions for the tunneling current enables one to achieve an understanding of the tunneling entities involved. At low bias for LEDs grown on sapphire, data are consistent with electron tunneling to deep levels in the vicinity of mixed/screw dislocations and are characterized by an energy near 200 meV. This component is absent for those devices homoepitaxially grown. In the intermediate bias regime, LEDs both heteroepitaxially and homoepitaxially grown exhibit a tunneling component that is proposed to be associated with the heavy hole tunneling via intermediate states and to have a characteristic energy near 80 meV. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.